Anybody any idea who's going to form the next government ?...

there were 5 seats where voters were left queuing - 3 x l and 2 x ld - only one of which was marginal (chester from memory)
the election will not be re-run on the basis of that

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a minority party is perfectly capable of forming a gov't and arguably could stay in power for some time without calling an election
nevertheless, it would be inherently weak, needing to rely on tacit or actual support from others to push through legislation
the tougher that legislation, the harder it is likely to be to push it through

except that on the exit polls labour-lib do not have combined majority

but Cons-Lib would have

you are assuming a formal coalition ..... that is a rare occurrence

balls up at the polling stations ....... 100's turned away , some running out of voting papers.

I made no personal assumptions at all

Its just simple arithmetic

anyway, it may be all academic with 8% swing against Labour

exit poll looks to have been pretty accurate ...... cons now predicted to win 307 = +2 from exit poll ..... ld have surprisingly not performed nearly as well as predicted

Cameron at the moment could hope for a coalition with the liberal-democrats or the northern ireland mp's in the event of the former going with labour.....so to me Cameron has to be leader.....Brown still clinging to the railings at number 10....but perhaps not for long...

do you have any idea where the DUP (i think that's the party with all the seats in NI) stands relative to Tory mandate/promises?

At least the Falklands oil cos are performing well today against the general fall in the uk markets.

I thing NC will go with Cameron....the situation with GB would not work out...the rest of them could help but I'm no expert in political affairs, some would go with Cameron others won't.

I think you'll find it's more than a few hundred. Stories say it happened in several cities and certainly we had to queue to vote which has never happened before.

Whether the story runs who knows but I still feel we will have another election soon.

i think you are right and assuredly there will be a massive row about the chester shambles as that is a very close count-call

Why would anybody want to vote for Labour ? never overestirmate the intelligence of the British public .

using some of those on this BB as shining examples of same?

I dont think the markets or the media or the public would like to see a coalition of losers
it would hardly seem to be the honourable thing to do

and if we are to have another election in the autumn, it might be politically savvy for Gordon to stand aside now and wait .

he would then enjoy the 'well, they tried and failed' high ground

He'll hang on to the bitter end like Hitler in his bunker.

Bit late to reply Cynic but DUP got 8 MPs SF 7 SDLP 3 Alliance 1 Ind 1 Dup might support Cons if deal is right SF leans towards labour as does SDLP other 2 both women will do their own thing. Quite interesting here as 3 party leaders have lost their seats

NC will have to go with JC because if he goes with GB : the total does not exceed JC + NI....so to defeat Gordon Brown you have to have : > GB+NC=JC+NI......hopes that makes sense...(:))...(Gordon Brown disposal formula)....or gbdf for short...

Clegg to talk to Cameron first

and cable bounces

cynic

re - i rather forlornly hoped that the peeps who inhabit these boards were rather more educated and thoughtful

We wish you did not have RED all over you and ofcourse including the NOSE